1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to real time authorization of transactions using non-cash payment instruments such as credit cards and debit cards.
2. Related Art
While there has been much discussion in recent years concerning card-not-present (and particularly Internet shopping) fraud, in fact the bulk of credit card fraud arises from card-present transactions. For example, card “skimming” often results in a fraudulent card being produced and used, possibly in a different country from where the skimming occurred. Another example is mail interception, in which cards are stolen from the postal system as they are en route to the customer.
While the losses arising from fraud are very considerable, efforts to date at providing new systems to reduce fraud have met with only limited success. In one approach marketed by the company Orbiscom™ a “disposable” card number is issued to which limited use conditions are applied. This approach appears to be of benefit for Internet transactions, however it is generally believed to be of little benefit for card present transactions.
In another approach, “neural intelligence” is used by the issuer to monitor proposed transactions and to block those which do not appear to fit a usage pattern for the cardholders. These systems monitor patterns of usage and on the basis of this monitoring, determine when usage is out of the ordinary. While this appears to be a very helpful approach, it suffers from practical problems. For example, a cardholder may find to his or her embarrassment and inconvenience that he or she can not use a card when on holiday in a foreign country. The overall impression the cardholder has is that he or she is not in control and does not understand how his or her transactions are controlled.
The invention is therefore directed towards providing a system and method for real time processing of transactions to reduce overall fraud. Another object is to help ensure that cardholders are more in control of how their cards are used and that they are informed of what is happening.